The present invention relates to exercise apparatus employing the exercise method developed by Joseph H. Pilates.
The exercise method developed by Joseph H. Pilates involves some principles known from yoga, and hundreds of excises utilizing a wide variety of specially designed equipment employing a fusion of various philosophies of body culture, movement, body mechanics, balance, coordination, positioning, strength and flexibility, aiming at improved fitness, enhanced performance, and improved posture and flexibility with low impact. One device best known from the Pilates variety of devices, is the xe2x80x9creformerxe2x80x9d which employs spring tension exerted on a movable carriage. The various Pilates devices make extensive use of helical springs which were deemed by the designer to be preferable over other resistance elements due to their linear resistance loading characteristics as a function of the spring extension.
One of the Pilates-designed exercise devices became known as the xe2x80x9cwunda chairxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cPilates chair.xe2x80x9d This is in its original form a body rebalancing device made from two plywood sides, with a pedal between them and hinged from the base, and attached to the rear edges of the plywood sides by a plurality of elongated, usually up to about 6 helical springs. These springs resiliently connect the hinged pedal from the fixed plywood sides, and are provided with large eyes at their respective ends through which the springs are hooked at various stretched positions to permit a variation of their biasing strengths.
There are various exercise machines known from the prior art, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,641,833 and 5,897,459. These are designed for repetitive exercise movements against variable resistances. These are not Pilates type devices, and their use generally results in an increased imbalance between the parts of the body. The Pilates exercises and devices are designed to correct such imbalances caused by other types of conventional exercise machinery.
The Pilates chair can be sat in when it is turned upside down, and in all of its various possible positions can support body movements when the user is standing, sitting, kneeling, bending, supine or prone. In any of these positions the user places any part of its body onto the bar connecting the hinged pedal element and hinges the spring-biased bar against the biasing effect of the springs, as they can be adjusted on the hooked attachment of the springs. Changing the spring tension is complicated and involves a great deal of practice and often more strength than the user can readily muster. Furthermore, each exercise tends to require a different spring tension adjustment. The Pilates chair in its original form is not structurally sound. The springs can become easily de-tached from the sidewalls of the chair and also tend to knock against them. While the spring resistance and the corresponding of the xe2x80x9cdifficultyxe2x80x9d of the exercises can be compensated by the appropriate repetitions and use of the Pilates exercise method, an improvement of the design of the Pilates chair has become overdue.
The present invention is an improved Pilates chair having a seat top with an underside, a base that is wider than the seat top, a plurality of bracing members between the seat top and the base, a swingable lever having an upper end and a lower end disposed between the seat top and the base, the lower end being hingeably attached from the base, an adjusting block disposed slidably along the lever between the upper and lower ends thereof, means on the adjusting block for locking it in a position along the lever, and one or more elongated helical springs each having two ends, one of the ends being attached from the underside of the seat top, and the other end being attached from the adjusting block, whereby sliding said adjusting block along said lever, and locking it in a position therealong, will result in a greater or lesser extent of stretch being imparted to the at least one helical spring.